


Winry's apple pie

by some_where



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canon Compliant, Family Feels, Feels, Gen, They deserve comfort and happiness after everything they've been through
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-09 01:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17397314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/some_where/pseuds/some_where
Summary: The first time he tastes Winry’s apple pie, Al bursts into tears. The warmth and the explosion of flavors he’d half-forgotten spreading into his mouth and coating his tongue is almost too much to handle, and it’s the best thing he remembers ever eating. Al beams through his tears and takes another slice, then another, and another, until his belly hurts and he throws up later in the evening.---Alphonse gets his body back.





	Winry's apple pie

 

The first time he tastes Winry’s apple pie, Al bursts into tears. The warmth and the explosion of flavours he’d half-forgotten spreading into his mouth and coating his tongue is almost too much to handle, and it’s the best thing he remembers ever eating. Al beams through his tears and takes another slice, then another, and another, until his belly hurts and he throws up later in the evening. A predictable outcome, really, but no one - not even Pinako - had the heart of telling him to stop eating. As he engulfs mouthful after mouthful of pie, he’s so focused on the food that he doesn’t notice Winry blinking back happy tears. He certainly doesn’t notice Ed staring at him with emotion, his own plate forgotten. And if that night, Ed thinks about the look of pure joy on his brother’s face, and cries of happiness and relief into his pillow, then that’s his business.

 

 

* * *

 

 

When he regains consciousness after being brought back from the Gate, the first thing Al feels through the fog of sleep is the sun on his skin. It warms him from the outside in, and it’s like he’s on fire but in a pleasant way. He had forgotten how the sun feels like. Then Al feels the light breeze caressing him, giving him goosebumps ( _goosebumps!_ ), then the soft but heavy weight of fabric resting on his body. Only then does he realize that he’s breathing, a dull ache spreading through his unused lungs every time he inhales. He wonders if that’s what it feels like to be born. Al also feels another warmth enveloping him, and it takes him a little while to realize that it’s _human_ warmth. Arms are wrapped around his shoulders, a hand is holding his, someone is stroking his hair. He had forgotten how amazing it feels to be touched by another human being. All these sensations are a little too much for him to handle after years of feeling nothing, and Alphonse’s eyes - his own, human eyes! - flutter open. It takes a few seconds for his vision to focus, and then he sees everyone staring at him, beaming and crying. Ed is literally sobbing, hand clutching his painfully, and Al grins. The muscles of his face pull and feel weird when he does so, but he finds that he never wants to stop smiling.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The first time it rains, a few days after he came back to life, Al literally falls from his bed in his haste to get outside. He limps to the front door, leaning heavily on his wooden cane, the atrophied muscles of his legs crying for mercy. But he powers through the pain, excited as he is. Ed catches up to him as he’s about to fall again, and slips an arm around his upper body to support him. They step outside, and Al lets out a startled laugh when the heavy rain suddenly falls down on him. He’s soaked in a matter of seconds, and can’t help but laugh and laugh as he feels millions of raindrops hitting his skin like icy needles. He feels refreshed, and cleansed, and frightfully cold, and it’s marvelous. Water gets in his eyes and mouth, his hair sticks to his face, and he thinks about how lucky he is : he spent years thinking about all the things he would do and experience once he got his body back, and now he finally gets to do so.

 

Next to him, Ed is staring at his brother and smiling so wide it hurts. For a long time, all he wanted was to see his mother again. Then everything went to hell, and all he wanted was to see his brother’s face again - not the empty, emotionless face of a metal helmet, but his _real_ face, the one that was always alive with emotions and so much kindness, the one that was as soft as Ed’s face was hard, the one with the eyes as gentle as their mother’s. And now there it is, Alphonse’s face lighting up with pure joy and wonder, and he can see his mother’s face in it, too, and that’s all he ever wanted for years, really, to see his brother happy. Ed tilts his head back and lets his tears mingle with the rain. For someone who made it through five awful years without shedding a single tear, he sure is crying a lot these days, isn’t he?

 

 

* * *

 

 

It’s been a few weeks since Al got his body back. They both have dreamed of this day for so long that now it finally happened, it still feels like a dream. Ed is sometimes terrified that Al’s body will suddenly unravel into nothing as it once did, his soul left behind to wander and die. And even though they haven’t talked about it, he knows that his brother shares the same fear - sometimes Al wakes up gasping for air, fingers pinching his own skinny face, arms, legs, to make sure that it’s still flesh and skin and that he _feels_ something.

 

So every time he gets the chance, Edward squeezes Alphonse’s bony hand in his own, comforted by the warmth of the skin, remembering how just a few weeks ago there was only cold metal. Ed has never been a touchy-feely kind of guy, but now he hugs and grips and slings an arm around Al’s shoulders, so _so_ grateful that his brother is no longer suffering, trapped into a metal cage of Ed’s making.

 

Al endures the sudden and unusual outpouring of physical affection with laughs and smiles, ecstatic to have his body back, and elated to finally see Ed joyful instead of perpetually angry. (Not that Ed will ever stop being grouchy, but hey that’s just the way he is.) A huge burden has been lifted from both their shoulders, and if that’s how Ed is dealing with it, then let him be. Al knows how guilty Ed felt during all those years, and he’s relieved that his brother finally allows himself to be happy. So even if he finds him too clingy sometimes (which is something he never would have believed possible up until recently), he tolerates it good-naturedly.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Sometimes Ed misses alchemy, misses the way raw power coursed through his body, misses using it to do mundane things (he had forgotten how long it takes to fix things the normal way). He was a damn good alchemist, that he knows. But then he sees Al closing his eyes with delight as he eats an ordinary meal, or beaming with excitement as he learns something new in a book, or laughing with Winry, and he knows it was worth it. He could never miss alchemy the way he would miss Al, and he’d take being a good brother over being a good alchemist any day.

The guilt still gnaws at his insides, sometimes - a big brother is supposed to protect his little brother, and yet he put his in harm’s way, Al taking the brunt of their mistake even though it was Ed’s idea. Al has forgiven him a long time ago, maybe was never even mad at him, but Ed still hasn’t forgiven himself. He doesn’t know if he ever will.

But they’re both alive, with bodies made (mostly) of flesh, they saved the country and they have their whole life ahead of them. They have time to explore the world and learn everything there is to learn about it. They have time to mend their wounds. They have all the time in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> i love these two so much they're my children i'm so glad they got a happy ending and aren't suffering anymore!
> 
> English isn't my first language and this hasn't been beta'ed so sorry for the eventual mistakes.  
> Don't forget to comment and leave a kudo if you liked this!
> 
> Find me on Tumblr [here](http://jabariqueen.tumblr.com/), we can talk about how awesome Scar is.


End file.
